Reflections on "Reconstruction: America After the Civil War"
(Photo: Mural on the wall of row houses in Philadelphia. The artist is Parris Stancell, sponsored by the Freedom School Mural Arts Program. Picture by Tony Fischer/2009.)
Transforming Black History into a Modern-Day Call to Action
While watching the PBS series Reconstruction: America After the Civil War, I was struck by a quote from Frederick Douglass during the World Fair of 1893. He said,
We negroes love our country. We fought for it. We ask only that we be treated as well as those who fought against it.
Hundreds of thousands of Black soldiers risked their lives fighting for freedom during the Civil War. Yet immediately after, they were subjected to racist laws designed to preserve the racial hierarchy of slavery. Douglass’s words are compelling because they embody the profound struggle Black Americans have faced for centuries in their long-standing fight for racial justice and equality.
At first, I was skeptical about starting the series, because I have not been completely satisfied with other documentaries about Black history, which often overemphasize the role of white abolitionists such as John Brown or Abraham Lincoln, minimize the role that Black women have played, and grossly oversimplify the history behind slavery and its immediate aftermath. However, I was impressed with the content of the show and by the diversity of the historians included within it. Coincidentally, the host, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., was one of the first people I identified with when I was learning about what it means to be Black in America.
I remember being outraged at the story of his arrest while entering into his own home, and it reinforced to me the racial inequality that still exists in this country today. Learning about his arrest led me on October 20th, 2012, to purchase Touré's Who's Afraid of Post Blackness? What It Means to be Black Now. It was unlike anything I had read before. The author discusses not only how to embrace your Blackness but also how not to be boxed in by societal expectations around what it means to be Black.
In his book, Touré recalls from an interview with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., that “…if there are forty million Black Americans, there are forty million ways to be Black.” I remember being amazed at how much I could relate to every sentence, and soon after found myself seeking out more memoirs about race. It began my journey into discovering my own complicated identity and understanding why I faced the challenges I did even as a young girl. I thought back to when I watched my mom struggle with the teachers at my elementary school because they refused to let me into their “gifted and talented” program. And when I finally entered, I remember being confused about what made me different from the rest of my classmates.
“Black Americans were subjected to unspeakable violence and terror, yet their steadfast commitment to the ideals of democracy paved the way for the first Black men to hold elected office just years after their own enslavement. ”
After finishing Touré’s book, I went on to read the autobiographies of Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass, and to read Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America by Melissa Harris-Perry in 2013. As a Black person, I found their words to be so empowering, because it was rare to find positive and meaningful representations of my lived experience. The first-hand accounts of Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X became my foundation for understanding our nation’s history of systemic racism, while Melissa Harris-Perry helped me reckon with my own treatment as a Black woman in America.
The lives of every Black American—from Douglass to Malcolm X, from Touré to Harris-Perry to myself—have been shaped by the Reconstruction period. The Reconstruction years vastly shifted the Overton window of what was possible for Black Americans and are crucial to understanding where we are today. Black Americans were subjected to unspeakable violence and terror, yet their steadfast commitment to the ideals of democracy paved the way for the first Black men to hold elected office just years after their own enslavement.
The PBS series does an amazing job of presenting this history and capturing the experiences of Black people during the Reconstruction Era through visualizations, direct quotes, and compelling commentary by historians of all backgrounds who share a passion for exposing the racial violence that occurred after the Civil War. In particular, the show walked viewers through the story of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a memorial that confronts the history of lynching. Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the organization behind the museum, the Equal Justice Initiative, said that what made him so interested in telling the story of lynching is that it is rarely ever talked about. He went on to say that America needs to understand its history of racial violence in order to say “never again.” The transparency and boldness of white supremacy even today highlights the importance of his words.
Documentaries like Reconstruction are so important because American education, especially in the South, whitewashes history. When I learned more about Black history, I began to speak up in my classes. I remember one instance when my professor was comparing Malcolm X and Dr. King and used the word "terrorist" to describe Malcolm X. (More of this story is actually coming back to me as I think deeply about it.) After “comparing” the platforms of the two, he asked the class which side they agree with more. I was the only person in class to raise my hand and defend the positions of Malcolm X. I talked about how there was much more to his philosophy than just violence, and I tried to make the case that Black Americans were victims of violence themselves. I was ostracized for making those comments, but that only made me more committed to speaking my mind.
The nuances of Black history, and in particular the period of Reconstruction, are overlooked in public school education, even though that period is so vital to the formation of the present-day United States. This period in particular demonstrates the violence that Black people still faced after they were granted “freedom.” Without sharing their stories, it is impossible to see the full picture of Black history—and United States history.
I find the way Reconstruction relates this history to be particularly thoughtful because of the show’s references to current events and the link drawn from the past to the present. In this way, the show becomes a call to action. The documentary encourages viewers to become committed to the once-radical ideals of racial justice, fairness, and equality upon which our nation was built, and to strive toward the vision of America shared by Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. DuBois, and other heroes of the Reconstruction era.
Documentaries and movies about Black history are usually just that: history. However, Reconstruction not only tells the history of the period but also shows us why it is still so important to actively remember it. To understand the full scope of Black history, we need less of The Help and Green Book and more shows like Reconstruction. Romanticizing history gets us nowhere. Reconstruction reminds us that we are obligated to educate people about the atrocities of the past so that history does not repeat itself.
Najma Mohamud is a recent graduate of George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government and an alum of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. She has a background in local politics and is currently working in international development.
